Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000

Who are the British today? For nearly three hundred years, British national identity was a unifying force in times of glory and despair. It has now virtually disappeared. In “Patriots”, Richard Weight explores the decline of Britishness and the rise of powerful new identities in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Based on a wealth of original research, it is scholarly in depth and scope, yet never departs from a thoroughly readable and entertaining style. ‘Here are the themes of Orwell’s “The Lion” and the “Unicorn” stretched over the subsequent sixty years and widened to embrace the whole United Kingdom. Brimming with zest and feel this is politico-cultural history at its best.’ – Peter Hennessy. ‘Wide-ranging, intelligent, sensible and important.’ – Max Hastings, “Sunday Telegraph”. ‘A marvelously rich, ambitious and at times iconoclastic study by a young historian of how, in the broadest sense, national identity in Britain has changed in the last 60 or so years’ – David Kynaston, “Financial Times”. ‘A major work: the fruit of long research, wide reading and hard thinking, engagingly written, bubbling with fresh ideas’ – Stephen Howe, “Independent”.

Reviews of Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000

'Here are the themes of Orwell's The Lion and the Unicorn stretched over the subsequent sixty years and widened to embrace the whole United Kingdom. Brimming with zest and feel this is politico-cultural history at its best.' Peter Hennessy; 'Wide-ranging, intelligent, sensible and important.' Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph; 'A marvellously rich, ambitious and at times iconoclastic study by a young historian of how, in the broadest sense, national identity in Britain has changed in the last 60 or so years' David Kynaston, Financial Times; 'A major work: the fruit of long research, wide reading and hard thinking, engagingly written, bubbling with fresh ideas' Stephen Howe, Independent